June Road Trip

There are some nice trails on the upper portion of Sunrise Highway on the way to Lake Cuyamaca.
I doubt you will find much running water, maybe small streams here and there in best case.

We would join, but we have a trip planned to NorCal around same time.

Kind of a drive, but the trail to Vicente Flat in Ventana wilderness is real nice. Great views, redwoods, and there's usually a good size creek running next to the campsites. Also, the Kirk Creek CG is right across the road from the trailhead. You could drive up, stay at the car campground, hike to Vicente flat, camp there. Maybe do a day hike up to Cone Peak or do the loop counter clockwise and stay at Goat Camp the second trail night. Hike back to the car the next day.

Oh and no permits except a campfire permit

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=98658

"Kind of a drive"

Understatment.

San Gorgonio has a bunch of options. Hiking Jim here was recently and found running water. Has done a bit of mapping with GPS on the trails there. He has some loop trips. PM him, and get some ideas. Skip Vivian Creek and drive around the back and take off from Quaking Aspens for more solitude.

I was just planning on going to Ventana this weekend and called the Monterey Ranger's Station in the area.

Permits are not needed to hike in, but a fire permit is needed and is free online.

http://www.ventanawild.org/planning-trip.html

HOWEVER, they have a ban on all stoves at this time and will likely last until the fall due to their concerns for fire.

As a result, we cancelled our plans to go there.

Just something to think about.

Great place….been there once before and looking forward to going back in the future.

Photos of a past trip:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=14718

Tony

3 great ideas overnight. Laguna/Cuyamaca is available anytime for us, but I haven't been there recently. I backpacked near San Gorgonio before, starting at Fish Creek yellow post site, which I think is close to Quaking Aspen. Both of these should be high enough to offer some cooler conditions, but I'm guessing no reliable water sources.

Vincente Flats may be a drive, but that's my favorite of the 3. Only walk-up sites at Kirk Creek campground, but I nabbed the last site at Plasket Creek for the night before – I can cancel for $10 if we decide to go elsewhere. I was just looking at Sykes Hot Springs on a web search, but this seems more doable and probably less crowded. The ranger station said there is water now, but no promises for a few weeks from now.

It looks like a strenuous start to the hike up to Vincente Flats, but there's a fallback part way there at Espinosa, depending how how late we start and this first experience for my son to carry an overnight backpack. I'm having trouble finding a good trail map online, but the loop sounds interesting.

Any other ideas in this area (or better) I should consider? Being a hammock camper, I like trees – and this part of the state has 'em big.

Wierd. I just talked to them as well at the Monterey district office by phone this morning, and they said stoves were fine with a fire permit. I asked about alcohol and esbit and they said any camp stove was fine, but no wood or charcoal.

That would change my plans. Thanks for the head's up. Are you rescheduling somewhere else?

Yeah, I was shocked about what the Ranger said, but he confirmed it multiple times to me.

No stoves of any sort.

Anyway, so I am shifting over to Henry Coe State Park, which is less than 2 hours from the East Bay….near Gilroy, CA.

Walking up for a permit….8AM.

The Western Zone portion of the park has water and will be where all the people will want to go….limited number of sites.

Only 6.5 miles out to the campsite.

That said, this is my girlfriend's 1st trip, so this is going to be easy and an overnighter.

Henry Coe is a HUGE park….3rd largest State Park in CA, but outside the Western Zone, there is a lack of water.

In the summer time, most of the park is a "no go" for most people due to the unreliable water sources.

Even now, the ranger said that the ponds are okay with a good filter and the streams/creeks were a trickle.

Think of Henry Coe as a Winter, early Spring, and Late Fall type of place to go to.

I would never want to be there in the summer time.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=561

Tony

Don't forget that Coe added some water storage tanks along the trail by the group campsites.

Ken,

Thanks for the reminder.

Good news, since I am not going up your way….means that next time, we can get another trip in together.

Bringing along the same cheap string of battery operated LED xmas lights that I bought after seeing yours in action.

Tony

Here's a good online map for Ventana.

http://bigsurtrailmap.net

There's an interactive gmap4 based map with a ton of trails and routes with info/distances/etc for each. Also, offers printable pdfs. I preferred to draw the route I wanted on caltopo versus using the PDFs on that site for higher quality.

Also, Google ventana wilderness alliance. They have a website where people can post trail conditions/water sources/etc. Also, has a few trip ideas written out.

Nice map site. What do you guys think of the Prewitt loop trail? It's marked as an 11.8 mile loop with a couple of campsites – one says perennial water, although not sure if that counts into a 4 year drought. Someone reported it impassable back in February.

Even so, we've had rain down here on the first 3 Fridays in May and I was just watching a PCT Thru hiker's video (Red Beard) who was snowed in at Idyllwild, probably last weekend and ended up taking two unplanned zero days before heading up to Mt. San Jacinto. That must be filling some of the springs if any of that moisture hit the central coast too.

Thanks again for all the tips and insight.

Check out Mt San Jacinto. It's also fairly close to SD.